Sydney Pollack – R.I.P

He was no Spielberg, Hitchcock, Wilder, Welles or Scorsese when it came to making movies that were trendsetters or genre-benders, but he did make movies that made a distinct mark of their own. Sydney Pollack – the director, producer and actor died today at the age of 73.

Out of Africa remains my personal favorite amongst the movies he directed. The movie had all the right ingredients of a classic – stellar actors in Redford and Streep, an epic tale, sweeping cinematography of the lush African landscape, a soul-stirring score and a great script . This movie is about a story of a married Danish Baroness, Karen(played with aching honesty by Meryl Streep) falling in love with a lonely, dashing and free-spirited hunter, Denys (who else but Redford could have played him) . If you have seen the movie you will realize the intensity of the following dialogue: